It’s incredible how expensive dim sum is nowadays. When I started the writing about food 10 years ago, a basket of siew mai at a typical dim sum restaurant was around $3.50. Nowadays it is around $5.50 and even $6 in some places! It is no wonder that over the last 10 years we are also seeing more coffee shops selling dim sum which are made on the premises. It all makes very good economic sense. As the restaurants increase their prices, it has opened up a new market segment for stall owners to fill. Dim sum is good business in a coffeeshop. Wheras the neighbouring stall might sell a bowl of noodles for $3, the dim sum stall can sell a basket of siew mai for the same price and customers usually will buy a few baskets. This means that the earnings per customer is easily four or five times that of a noodle stall! Eating dim sum at a coffeeshop is not quite the same experience ...